Autorickshaw - Case for a decent service and good business model!

I had posted this previously here ... think it's worth a re-reading : 

Roads in India defy order & logic of any kind. The Indian road is mostly a dirt track & provides an avenue for hawking, parking, garbage dumping, etc. & struggles to attempt to provide a corridor for transportation amidst the chaos & anarchy.

And at its heart, playing a key role is the Auto-Rickshaw, a three-wheeler commonly referred to as “Auto”, the only such being of its kind, perhaps in the universe. The “Auto” does indeed seem so naturally & effortlessly Indian on all counts – by appearance, by its noise, (lack of) road manners, pollution & its indisciplined & unpredictable movements.

The auto is the Indian urban rat, a wily, crafty creature that dribbles its way through the Indian urban sewer. The auto deals with the road on a second-by-second basis, recognizing that the Indian road is the abode of constantly changing circumstances. Twisting & turning all along its way through traffic, chaos & mankind in no particular order, every inch of territory on the Indian road is fought for & gained not by courage but by guile & cunning. The auto defies the idea that the road is a straight line but sees it as a chessboard, contemplating its next move based on obstacles on it’s path & options available, however crooked they may seem.

In many ways, the auto is perfectly at home in twisty by-lanes. ‘Gullies’ & ‘Mohallas’ seem like the perfectly natural neighborhood for the auto. The auto mimics their lack of linearity with “Made for each other” ease. In fact, even on straight roads the auto contrives somehow to avoid the sense of linearity by sheer habit as it zigzags & wriggles along, as it makes progress.

The auto, like most other things in India, always seeks to subvert order & insinuate itself wherever & whenever it can – it is common to see an auto climbing up a footpath or divider & get ahead of other more patient road vehicles. One can commonly sight an auto going in the opposite direction on a one way road, or even through a stop or red signal, appearing to go unnoticed & without ruffling any feathers. The auto also brings to us a vastly enhanced sense of sub-atomic distances by intruding so close to the vehicle ahead that limits seem not just to have been tested, but to have vanished & distances, spaces & gaps seem to have disappeared, & yet, miraculously, no contact was made.

The auto, with the least effective wheel suspensions, is also a vehicle that transmits the topography of the Indian road into the passengers’ innards, converting travel over road bumps, potholes, debris, pebbles, stones, etc. into an efficient digestive experience.

The key to understanding the auto is to understand its design. The principle governing its design is perhaps the overwhelming view of compromise being not a lesser choice, but an inevitable & ideal choice. All else be damned, but cost has to be minimum – even, miniscule. Vehicle noise & some air pollution are quite natural & acceptable on the Indian road, as long as they don’t immediately damage ears or lungs. The speed the auto is capable of traveling has been carefully chosen – It is significantly faster than a cycle, but lesser than that of cars or other wastefully expensive means of transportation. If this were looked at from the reality of Indian roads, it travels at the “ideal speed”. Take the case of its suspension – this too is self-limiting for its speed – if the auto travels too fast, one’s insides would mimic that of a violent food processor.

The speed of the engine is thus made slower, but cheaper & in line with the Indian road & Indian circumstances. The engine seems to have been perfected to the ultimate & is versatile & very efficient to serve it’s purpose. It can use all kinds of adulterated fuel, even adulterated kerosene or adulterated diesel. And it can run for indefinite periods without lubricating oil & /or cooling water. What’s more, the auto can also be used as a mobile rest house for overnights at remote locations where it has ended the day in its wanderings.

The auto is a shanty on wheels & represents the idea of personal transportation promising to offer protection against the elements, without offering any guarantees. In a larger sense, the auto accurately captures the “hybrid mongrel“ nature of Indian towns. It also affirms the Indian belief that life is hard, but there can always be a way around it. And circumstances will compel you to yield to trusting an auto to take you where you want to go – Sort of.

I think in all developing countries, autos & "decent service and good business model" do not go together, simply because driving autos is usually for the uneducated  /unemployed, who seek some means of survival - in most cases, they do not own vehicles, but 'hire' & drive them on daily basis. They have no formal training & no benefits like health coverage, which cost money.

If corporatization or regulated services are attempted, in most cases, it will fail (like Eazy auto, which failed within a few months of launch) as costs for remote management to prevent leakage of revenues add up. Added to this, some 'strong-arm' methods are also required to manage auto drivers as they are uneducated & will always tend to go after the 'fast buck'. So, why would they work for a regulated, formal company when they can do better by employing other means by hiring & driving ?

Unregulated autos in Mumbai are much more disciplined & seldom demand excess fare. Why ? Many reasons :
1) Public transport with local trains is far more efficient & dependable.
2) Distances travelled by users are much smaller - usually, only to or from rail or bus stations.
3) Auto users are far fewer -- the city consists of over 60% living in slums.

Now, look at Bangalore :
1) No trains /Metro yet, therefore no fast /dependable transport, other than buses that are inefficient in traffic.
2) Distances travelled are very large.
3) Auto users are probably the largest for any city in the country, particularly due to much higher incomes.

All this make the Auto somewhat indispensable in Bangalore, for now - too many chasing them, providing them with many opportunities to fleece customers & dictate terms.

The only proper & permanent solution is for the city to have several modes of good & reliable transport, like Metro, BRT & commuter trains, that are not traffic dependent for efficiency.

Past failures likes Easy Auto need not be true at all times...It is said failures are stepping stones for the success

Syed - Perfectly true & couldn't agree with this more. The grim reality is that corporatization of autos maybe too difficult since profits, if any will be too meagre due to high pilferage of revenues. A better course may be to try to regulate them with more severe penalties & punishment if excess is demanded. However, to get this to yield results, ultimately, it is in our hands as citizens to assist in the effort & complain at every instance without hesitation. The truth is that the majority of auto users pay up excess than meter fare. Taking advantage, the auto unions are also allowed to grow stronger. Unless this jinx is broken, it is bound to be an uphill task - no harm in trying, though.

Asked atleast 7 autos & 4 taxis in Bandra to go to Ville Parle about a month ago. Only one agreed and at a fixed fare of his choosing. Not different from Bangalore at all. 

This maybe true, but I used autos throughout my stay in Mumbai & had far fewer problems with them than in Bangalore. On rainy days, of course they demanded 150-200 rs for what normally costs 25rs !

A new service started under a different setup will have better chances of survival. Like say a share auto service with Tata magic type vehicles run by  BMRCL for select zones of operation like local last mile upto 3kms. In this there is differentiation in rolling stock, route restrictions & corporatization all of which will allow us to try new stuff like smart cards, tracking, diciplined metering etc. What say? 

The idea looks great, but to get this to work may be quite a challenge.

Having said that it should be privately operated, it has to have certain basic charestristics like GPS & Smartcards fitted. The vehicle data will be constantly tracked by the regulator & payouts based on the data generated by the GPS/smart card. Minimumum trip committments/headway can be tracked by GPS, smartcard can give load factor & allow for per passenger revenue sharing. IF these 2 equipment on board are not working operator will not recieve any payouts for that bus/auto, that way you enforce automation based service level enforcement

Very well. We are deviating from the subject of autos, but anyway, how about operating cost/s vs. revenues - the basics that must be considered when planning services ?

I had done some rudimentary, back of the envelope calculations here. I think the costs will go way too high for patronization levels to be maintained - in fact, if costs are higher than bus fares (which they are bound to be if vehicle size is small), there will be no takers.

GPS monitoring & smart card integration will further increase costs.

Enforcement is another challenge. As it is, there are numerous private company owned vans /jeeps that pick up people off bus stops on return /empty trips & the driver charges about 8-10rs. (unaccounted - entirely for his own pocket) from each passenger - about the same as bus fares, else there will be none to board his vehicle.

I commute to Mahadevpura, daily. Since there are a lot of volvos to ITPL, the best route for me turns out to be using the bus till graphite india, and taking an auto for the last 1.5 km stretch. On this stretch, where the frequency of BMTC buses are too low, there are a group of about 5 autowalas, who are stationed on either side. They charge a flat Rs20/- for this stretch. Sometimes, they take more than one person, and each person pays Rs20/- . But, they do not refuse you a ride at rs 20/- even when you are a single passenger. They never take more than 3 passengers either. I am happy, since, I almost always get an auto as soon as I get down from the bus. I do not have to negotiate the charge every time I go for an auto. And, given the consitency of charge, and the assurance of an auto on this stretch, it is good enough for me. 

There was a time, when any auto on this stretch used to ask for upto Rs 50/-. And, at that time, most people (including myself) refused to take an auto. We used to wait for the bus however infrequent it might be, or walk! These days, with the current system, I see more and more people taking autos.

And the more interesting part is that I seldom see these autowalas going for long trips. They seem to be happy with the to and fro traffic on this stretch.
 

I wonder if it is possible to interview these auto drivers, and get to know how all they are facing/overcoming the problems faced by the autowalas.These guys seems to have formed a business case for themselves, and if it can be replicated for different parts of the city, that will be good. And more autowalas will take it seriously when members of their tribe are talking about the model, and how it works.
 

I am not able to talk more than necessary to them, for the lack of language skills :(

On the other hand, I have a route which will save me atleast 30 minutes each way, compared to the ITPL route. I can some on the bus till EMC2 on outer ring road (and thus escape all the marathahalli, kundenahalli, graphite india traffic blocks), and take an auto for the last 3km stretch (through a short cut - ghosala road). Unfortunately, there is no ferrying service from the autowalas on this stretch, and the negotiation usually starts from rs80/- to rs 100/-. And for this reason, I do not see many people form my office taking autos on this route!
 

If it was possible to induce some auto drivers to take up the same model as the graphite india - mahadevpura stretch, I would be happy!!
 

I have seen other business models as well. The last 1 km stretch near my home has infrequent bmtc services. There are quite a few apartments about 1km from themain road, and the autowalas here go for a sharing system. You get dropped at the apartments (or nearby) by paying a charge of Rs 10/- the charge remains the same, even when there are 5 passengers in the auto (three on the seat, and one on either side of the driver). The model is flawed from a safety perspective. But, considering the 50 speed breakers, and the speeds at which vehicles move on this road, and the fact that most passengers on this road are daily wage earners / labourers etc, it seems fair enough! At least it provides an assured means of transport, at an affordable cost, for the last mile.  I guess this is similar to the sunranjandaas road auto sharing that was mentioned, with the difference that here, the cost benefit is passed on to the passengers to some extend.. And that seems to be because on Suranjandas road, "techies" seem to be a good part of the crowd, whereas on the stretch I was talking about, it is mostly daily wage earners!
 

I would have preferred it, if they would take no more than three passengers at the same rate.. If that is too much to ask for take rs 15/- per passenger, and make sure that no more than 3 passengers are made to travel in a trip..
 

What I would want is an affordable means of transport, which is predictable as well. I do not want the hazzle of negotiating the charge every time, and there should be some consistency. Paying upto 1.5 times the meter charge is ok with me most of the times! It is when it goes beyond 1.5 or double, that my blood starts boiling :(
 

Concept of "HOME" stand

Another thing I have noticed is that In bangalore, the territories of autowalas seem to be marked. Usually, when an autowala asks for double charge, since he wont get a return trip, I am amused. They say that for any destination. Even during peak hours, when you travel to MG road, they complain that they wont get a retunr trip!  why is it always necessary to get a return trip? Another trip from the current destination should be good enough!

On the other hand, autodrivers are not allowed to wait at autostands other than their "HOME" stand.. There are instances where, I got an auto by "waving the hand" and not from the auto stands, and the autowalas at the stand objected to it.. (The same graphite india stand!) They abused the non-member of the 'stand' and make sure no other autos picks up passengers from near the stand.. I guess this is one of the reasons autos often claim "return" as the reason to charge more. They really have to return to their "HOME" stand to pick up passengers, or keep running on the road till they get a passenger! 

You have identified some key structural issues which are what make it unorganized or dificult to organize. Territorial instincts are signs of individual/local group needs taking precedence over systemic survival. The unions were expected to lay down rules for the larger group but their influence is under question. 

Even the share autos today are ad-hoc & not committed services as there is no legal framework governing them. Once you allow these things which are outside agreement later on it becomes difficult to control them.

Before we go to smart cards & GPS here are cerain practical but political steps which will anyway have to be done but can help kickstart wthout technology

Can we restrict autos to certain zone of operation which is local (for example between a Big 10 + big circle pie)?

Can we introduce new shared modes which makes it more low volume public transport than it is now?

If these 2 can be achieved we can bring in predictability in cost by moving it to a fixd fare mode so overchargin etc doesnt  become a issue. Overloading will still be an issue but it will become local to the zone of operation. Technology is best here as it can be monitored from a central place but nevertheless the above 2 has to be done anyway if we agree where autos fit in our overall transport scenario. 

Strategically I dont see autos being the cross town players in the future, they have a vital role in local zone of influence. We need to agree on this first, then we go on to define zones etc.

LoL, the description of an auto...a few posts ago was hilarious. Jokes apart, the first target for autorickshaws should be hybrid autos which would  target 2 things

- cost of ever increasing fuel.

- pollution -> the noise pollution from an auto drives me nuts and deaf; air pollution...well it leaves me out of breath and dying :-)

The other things that can be done - 

- Let autos be run by BMTC or other companies and drivers be salaried employees.

- employees should be rewarded by a combination of number of trips they do and distance that they travel & number of passengers that they carry.  This may eleminate some of the "barolla saar" syndrome that is currently there in bangalore where you will have to listerally haggle and coax 10 different auto drivers to go to where you want to go before one of them agree.

I jokingly asked one auto driver once...yelli hogthira saa?. He asked -yaake? with an incredulous and amused look on his face.  I smilingly answered - neevu naan hogod jaagake barolla; so, why not go to where you are going...i will find another auto from there and eventually reach my destination!!!

Syed,

Nice futuristic video to ponder over. The success of Meru & Easy cabs & several other cab companies can of course be attributed to economics of scale & the higher rentals that taxis generally command. Autos in Bangalore (& almost every other city) are now actually charging nearly as much as taxis  - so, why shouldn't it be possible to operate them along the lines shown in the video with GPS, videocams, etc. ?

Quite true, but first, the auto unions must be tackled. They continue arguing that autos are operated by uneducated rural youth that do not have formal training, etc & the govts encourage this by providing quotas for eligibility (& bucks keep changing hands for permits). Unless this obstacle is overcome, the resistance from auto wallahs will continue - & corporatization attempts will keep failing.

The logical first step is therefore to unshackle the hold of the unions & get the govt to come up with innovative ways that indirectly encourage auto regulation.